Efficacy of Compassion-focused Visual Art Therapy (CVAT) On Self-Compassion and Trauma-Related Shame of Sexually Abused Female Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The present study investigated a child-centered therapeutic program known as Compassion focused Visual Art Therapy (CVAT) for female children who were sexually abused. The study was based on the theoretical and therapeutic foundations of the Self-compassion Theory, Shame Resilience Theory, Compassion-focused Therapy and Art Therapy. There were 'two group randomized controlled trial' with 36 children who were sexually abused and were residing at child welfare centres in Kerala, India. Self-Compassion Scale and Trauma Related Shame Inventory were used as assessment tools. This study was conducted in two phases; Phase I: development of CVAT and Phase II: the assessment of effectiveness of the CVAT, employing true experimental research method. The results were analyzed using mean scores, paired sample t-test, t-test for independent sample and Cohen's d test. The statistical analysis between the pre-test and post-test scores of experimental group showed significant differences (p=.001) at 0.05 level and the scores of the experimental and control groups showed significant difference (p=.001) in both variables in the post test. CVAT is efficacious in enhancing self-compassion and reducing trauma-related shame of the sexually abused children.